Listening-Sareh Saatian
Listening ' '''Introduction ' Listening to a second language (L2) has been regarded as the most widely used language skill in normal daily life (Morley 2001; Rost 2001). It involves a complex process that allows us to understand and interpret spoken messages in real time by making use of a variety of sources such as phonetic, phonological, prosodic, lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic (Lynch 1998). '''Approaches to learning and teaching listening 1. Listening within an environmentalist approach Up to the end of the 1960s, Listening was viewed as a passive process with no role in language learning. This assumption stemmed from the environmentalist approach to language learning, which considered that learning a language was a mechanical process based on a stimulus-response pattern. In such an approach, listeners’ stimulus ''consisted in hearing L2 spoken words and the ''response ''involved identifying and organizing those words into sentences. Thus, listeners’ main role was simply based on the recognition and discrimination of sounds rather than the understanding of what they were listening to (Brown 1990). These environmentalist considerations about learning to listen resulted in the Audio-lingual teaching methodology. This instructional approach emphasized the practice of listening by engaging learners in a series of exercises that focused on pronunciation drills, memorization of prefabricated patterns and imitation of dialogues (Morley 1999, 2001). 2. Listening within an innatist approach By the late 1960s, the status of listening changed from being considered just a merely mechanical process of habit formation to a more dynamic and mentalistic process. The main influence of such a shift came from Chomsky’s (1957, 1965) innatist views, which stated that children possess an innate ability that allows them to face the complex task of language. Comprehension was, therefore, a necessary step for language learning and listening was viewed as the primary channel by which access could be gained to L2 input, while in turn serving as the trigger for acquisition (Peterson 2001; Rost 2001). Consequently, it was assumed that for listening comprehension to take place, the primary condition was to understand language rather than simply repeat, imitate and memorize it (Rost 1990). These instructional approaches highlighted the explicit role of listening as a critical element for language learning and claimed that reception should precede production (Peterson 2001). The main proponent of such methodologies was Asher (1969), who proposed the pedagogical system Total Physical Response Other scholars in the early 1970s also developed a series of classroom teaching methodologies considering that learning a language was most effectively if the focus on production was introduced after listening to and understanding it (Postovsky 1974; Nord 1975; Winitz and Reeds 1975). These teaching practices consisted in exposing learners to large amounts of input together with semantic decoding practice and simple selection tasks (Rost 1990). Similarly, some years later Krashen and Terrell (1983) developed the Natural Approach, which set a natural order of language acquisition by making learners listen to the language first and then involving them in a production phase next. 3. Listening within an interactionist approach Under such an approach, it was claimed that listening should focus on a whole piece of discourse rather than listening to single words or short phrases spoken in isolation. Thus, listeners’ role changed from merely paying attention to the formal structures being heard toward listening for content and meaning (Rost 2001). This new conception of listening was termed ''purposeful listening, since, as claimed by Brown (1990: 147), “in normal life we have reasons for listening, and interests and purposes which our listening serves.” On the one hand, the information processing ''view of listening claimed that comprehension of a given message only occurred when it was internally reproduced in the listeners’ mind. Such a view included two comprehension models: 1) the Perception, Parsing and Utilization model (Anderson 1985), and 2) the Identify, Search, File and Use model (Brown 1995), which followed a sequential order of input, perception, recognition, and understanding stages (Lynch 1998). On the other hand, the ''constructivist ''view of listening emphasized the fact that listeners did not merely receive and process meaning, but rather constructed such meaning according to their own purposes for listening as well as their own prior knowledge. The schema theory proposed by Rumelhart (1980), which was of paramount importance in reading comprehension. This theory involves the collection of prior knowledge (i.e., ''schemata) and experience that is stored in listeners’ memory and assists the process of comprehension. Schemata can be of two types: content schemata and formal schemata ''(Lynch and Mendelsohn 2002; Lynch this volume). This theory involves the collection of prior knowledge (i.e., ''schemata) and experience that is stored in listeners’ memory and assists the process of comprehension. Schemata can be of two types: content schemata and formal schemata ''(Lynch and Mendelsohn 2002; Lynch this volume). The latter, formal schemata, involves knowledge about discourse forms, rhetorical conventions as well as the structural organization of different text types, such as an academic lecture. By the 1980s and 1990s social and cultural aspects were also claimed to play an important role in the listening comprehension act. As far as the relevance of social factors, the notion of ''context'' acquired special emphasis under the discipline of sociolinguistics since, as pointed out by Carrier (1999: 65), “real-life listening does not occur in a vacuum but rather in a rich social context.” As part of the social context in which listening occurs, listeners should also be aware of the fact that speakers not only convey meaning through the use of verbal behavior but also by means of non-verbal elements (i.e., body postures, body movements, facial expressions, facial gestures, eye contact or the use of space by the communicators) as well as non-verbal paralinguistic elements such as the way the voice is used (Morley 2001). In both types of teaching methodologies the learning goal focuses on processing spoken discourse for functional purposes and learners become active listeners who are expected to use language selectively to perform tasks which focus on meaning rather than on form. In the Interactive approach to listening, learners follow a ''decoding, critical-thinking, speaking ''model in which they have to first decode the information they hear, react to it by processing it critically, and finally produce an appropriate response. It has been acknowledged that listening is a complex, social and interactive process in which “the listener is actively engaged in constructing meaning from a variety of contexts and input sources” (Vandergrift 1999, cited in Carrier 2003: 384). '''Teaching listening within a communicative competence framework ' Hymes (1971, 1972) argued the need to pay attention to language use in social practice. Thus, he introduced the term communicative competence, which incorporated not only internal aspects of the language, such as its grammar, but also the rules of language use in social context as well as the sociolinguistic norms of appropriacy. 1. Discourse competence Discourse competence implies an understanding of how language operates at a level above the sentence. It involves knowledge of discourse features such as markers, coherence and cohesion as well as formal schemata in relation to the particular purpose and situational context of the spoken text. 2. Linguistic competence Linguistic competence includes all the elements of the linguistic system such as aspects concerning grammar, phonology and vocabulary (Celce- Murcia and Olshtain 2000). In fact, Lynch and Mendelsohn (2002: 194) point out that one of the unique features of listening includes “the presence of a rich prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, loudness and more), which is absent from the written language.” Additionally, knowledge of the lexicon or vocabulary is an essential part of listeners’ linguistic competence, since it is the means to recognize the words that are heard within a whole piece of spoken discourse 3. Pragmatic competence Pragmatic competence involves an understanding of the function or illocutionary force of a spoken utterance in a given situation, as well as the sociopragmatic factors necessary to recognize not just what that utterance says, in linguistic terms, but also what it is meant by it. 4. Intercultural competence Intercultural competence implies having knowledge of both cultural and non-verbal communicative factors in order to appropriately interpret a given spoken text. Similarly, both Rost and White (this volume) also point out the importance of tackling cultural issues as essential aspects that influence listeners’ interpretation of what they are hearing. The knowledge of non-verbal means of communication, such as body language, facial expressions or eye contact, also plays an important role in the appropriate interpretation of a given spoken text. 5. Strategic competence This competence involves the mastery of both communication and learning strategies that will allow listeners to successfully construct meaning from oral input. White also points out the importance of teaching listening skills and strategies so that learners become used to employing them. Consequently, it has been claimed that making learners strategically competent in their ability to comprehend oral input will foster their overall communicative competence in the L2 (Carrier 2003). Areas of research that influence L2 listening instruction ' ' ' '''Introduction: Influences on listening instruction ' Listening instruction covers a wide range of teaching strategies. We can define listening instruction as a pedagogic plan that focuses on any of four goals: 1) Improving learners’ comprehension of spoken language, 2) Increasing the quality of learners’ intake from spoken input, 3) Developing learners’ strategies for better understanding of spoken discourse, or 4) Engendering a more active participation in face-to-face communication An overview of four key areas in which research has provided insights into the teaching of L2 listening. Area 1: Accessibility of input Area 2: Top down processing Area 3: Bottom up processing Area 4: Listener status Ø '''Accessibility of input Access to relevant and appropriately challenging input is a critical factor in listening development. '' Functions of input: Listening opportunities “provide the linguistic environment” or “set the stage” for acquisition. Factors that affect quality of input: ''1. Relevance: Relevance refers to the personal significance of the input. 2. Difficulty: Difficulty refers to the intrinsic “cognitive load” of a listening or reading text, its linguistic and informational complexity. Text difficulty is a reflection of the cognitive processes required for an adequate understanding of a text and is known to include several variables involving length, speed, familiarity, information density, and text organization. 3. Authenticity: ''Authenticity refers to the degree to which a text is a legitimate sample of the way the language is actually used. Two alternatives have been proposed to deal with the genuine vs. simplified text conundrum. One alternative that has been proposed is the use of “elaboration” rather than simplification. Another alternative of course is the use of focused processing tasks that provide scaffolding to allow learners to deal with selected aspects of an authentic text. Research questions Ø '''Top down processing' Top down processing –activating background knowledge and expectations through lexical access– guides the listening process and provides connection with higher level reasoning. '' Top-down processing in listening refers to the use of expectations in order to infer what the speaker may have said or intended to say. Expectations come from pre-packaged patterns of background knowledge that we have stored in memory from prior experiences. Activating schemata: In L2 listening, the role of schemata is especially important because in NS-NNS interactions and in the L2 listening generally, there are frequently significant mismatches between the speaker’s and the listener’s schemata that lead to misunderstandings. Lexical access: Top down processing is made possible both through non-linguistic means, particularly visual cues, and through linguistic means, primarily lexical access. The activation of background knowledge – the content schemata and cultural schemata – that is needed for comprehension of speech is linked to and launched by word recognition. Research questions Ø '''Bottom up processing' Training in bottom up processing is an essential element in listening comprehension. Although influence of the L1 may prevent efficient bottom up processing (metrical segmentation and word recognition), specific training will promote better listening. '' Bottom up processing refers to a two-pass listening process: the first is to identify the overall phonological shape of the metrical unit (or phrase or pause unit) that the speaker utters and the second is for segmental decoding or breaking the metrical unit into individual words. Because these processes are nearly simultaneous and mutually informing, we experience them as a single process of “decoding.” Components of bottom up processing: ''1. ''Feature detection '' 2. Metrical segmentation '' '' Research questions Ø Listener status The listener’s perceived status influences comprehension, participation, and value of input for language acquisition. Engagement by the L2 user –assumption of an “active listening” role –promotes acquisition of listening skills and strategies. '' Analyzing listener problems in discourse: Because asymmetry, anxiety and negative affect among L2 listeners are so pervasive, addressing the listener’s role in collaborative discourse has become a vital aspect of listening instruction. There are two important sources of research that contribute to this aspect of instruction. The first source is analysis of the critical problems that L2 participants encounter in discourse: misunderstandings, asymmetrical control, and lack of establishment of common ground. A second source of research has been formalized under the banner of “strategy instruction,” in which researchers attempt to isolate approaches, decisions, and tactics that are associated with “successful” (symmetrical, low-anxiety, positive affect) listening. Research questions '''Learning how to listen using learning strategies ' Introduction ' Much of what is traditionally mis-named ''teaching ''listening should in fact be called ''testing ''listening. The distinction that is being made is that when you teach, by definition, you teach the learner of anything ''how to do something. ' ' 'What should the learners be listening to? ' The material that the learners should be listening to should be spoken English. 'Materials ' 1. Authentic or non-authentic material? The only way that a second/foreign language learner will learn to comprehend spoken English is by exposing them to authentic, spoken language. A different stance could be taken on this matter. If one only listened to authentic material, it would be very difficult to reconcile this with the notion of teaching and providing practice in “how to” listen – it would push one into testing more than teaching. Other criteria for materials selection ''1. 'Needs analysis:'' The material needs to be relevant to the needs of the learners in question. '' 2. Motivation:'' To avoid boring the students, the highly relevant material needs to be peppered with other, different types of material in order to break the tedium and at the same time to expose the students to other types of language. Such an approach makes space for humorous, general interest, and other listening as well, which enhances motivation –something that should be consciously and deliberately worked at all the time. '' '' '''3. Level of difficulty:' A final factor that needs to be taken into account in materials selection is the level of difficulty of the material in relation to the proficiency level of the students. '''Instruction ' In fact, if we acknowledge that most of the listening we do is in a dialogic, interactional setting and not monologue, then it is essential that these skills be integrated. Not only should speaking and listening be integrated, but also be making the case for teaching interactive listening strategies, which, in fact, bridge the gap between these two skills. Learning strategies for listening? ' 1. Concept: Willing (1988: 7) in his definition identifies three features of learning strategies that are worth noting because they are directly relevant to listening comprehension: “processing, associating and categorizing.” Most commonly in the literature, learning strategies are classified into three main types: metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies. Chamot (1995: 15) defines them as follows: Metacognitive strategies are executive processes associated with the regulation and management of learning, and include strategies used to plan for a task, to monitor a task in progress, and to evaluate the success of a task after its completion. Cognitive strategies are used during the execution of a task to facilitate comprehension or production. social and affective strategies, which includes strategies such as questioning for clarification, cooperating with peers on a language learning task, and using affective controls such as positive self-talk to lower anxiety. '''Principles that should underlie all listening comprehension courses ' -there should be an initial needs analysis) - Linguistic proficiency features such as sound discrimination, understanding the role of stress and intonation, etc., must be taught - Training should be given in recognizing linguistic signals - Training should be given in recognizing extralinguistic and paralinguistic clues - There should be a lot of listening practice - The material should be spoken English - The content should be appropriate - Attitude and motivation should be considered - The level of difficulty should be carefully set - The delivery (recording) should be natural - The material should be video not audio - The course should cover different kinds of listening - There should be a recognition of the importance of prior knowledge - Pre-listening should precede the listening - Students should know what they are listening for - Post listening should follow the listening - The course should teach, not test - The course should include training in hypothesis formation, prediction and making inferences 'Types of instruction ' Strategy instruction: This is the “weak” or less intense version of how to incorporate strategies into the teaching of listening. A “strategy-based” approach: A strategy-based approach, then, is a methodology that is rooted in strategy training … It is an approach that sees the objective of the ESL course as being to train students how to listen, by making learners aware of the strategies that they use, and training them in the use of additional strategies that will assist them in tackling the listening task… Learners have to be weaned away from strategies that are unhelpful or even destructive, like grabbing for a dictionary …, and these have to be replaced by such helpful strategies as guessing the meaning of a word from the context. 'Academic listening: Marrying top and bottom ' A large part of the teacher’s role in improving L2 listening skills is to sensitize our students to the potentially useful signals, cues and other sources of help available to them in the spoken forms of the language. 'Levels ' The levels at which spoken information is potentially available for interpretation include phonetic, phonological, prosodic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. At the bottom-most phonetic level, partners in a conversation in English need to monitor the sub-lexical signals of their interlocutor’s attitude to the current topic and what is being said about it. Bottom-up processing would involve piecing together the elements in the speech signal in a linear fashion, in real time, as it is being spoken and heard. Top-down processing is broadly the converse of bottom-up, emphasizing the listener’s use of their existing knowledge of topic and the relevant context in forming hypotheses as to the speaker’s meaning and, when appropriate, in modifying them to match new incoming information. '1. Top ' In top-down processing we rely on what we already know to help make sense of what we hear. Schemata, the relevant packages of prior knowledge and experience that we have in memory and can call on in the process of comprehension, are of two types: content schemata ''and ''formal schemata. '' Content schemata are networks of knowledge on different topics Formal schemata are derived from our knowledge of the structure of discourse genres '''2. Bottom ' Description of listening as “making sense of what we hear” assumes that we have correctly identified what has been said. Yet speech recognition can be far from straightforward, since all languages present difficulties in the form of acoustic blurring of lexical boundaries in connected speech. When trying to recognize L2 speech, learners use the characteristic patterning of their L1 as a mental template for identifying incoming words. There is increasing evidence that L2 listeners’ ability to cope at this bottom, or linguistic, end of processing may well be a key to success. Wu (1998) concluded that for L2 listeners, linguistic processing is basic, in two senses: 1) failure or partial success in it may result in learners allowing activated schematic knowledge to dominate their decision-making inappropriately, and 2) competence in linguistic processing constrains but does not rule out non-linguistic activation. Brown (1986) was one of the first to call for what she called a diagnostic ''approach to teaching listening: “Until the teacher is provided with some sort of method of investigating the student’s problems, the teacher is really not in a position of being able to help the student “do better” (Brown 1986: ''286). Later Tauroza (1997) developed a three-phase remedial technique that he called ''troubleshooting':' 1. Identify the students’ listening problems in a text 2. Find out how many students share those problems 3. Focus students’ attention on the problem points and provide remedial practice Tsui and Fullilove (1998) and Wu (1998): what differentiates skilled and unskilled listeners is the ability to cope with linguistic processing, rather than the ability to use higher-level strategies. Designing materials to bring top and bottom together ''' Training of lecture listening skills, which represent an attempt to marry top and bottom in a way that will get EAP learners to apply listening strategies and skills and to reflect on that experience (Lynch 2004). ''Inferencing:' Inferencing ''is really just a more academic word for ''guessing. An efficient listener – especially when listening to a foreign language – regularly uses guessing as a main strategy. We are going to practice it in three short tasks: Task 1, Guessing from incomplete information: is designed to get the students monitor their thought processes as they construct a plausible interpretation of a story for which they do not have all the necessary background information. Task 2, Guessing at unfamiliar words, encourages students to use their bottom-level knowledge of the English language system to work out the meaning of words I assume they will not have seen before (from Lynch 2004: 60 and 193) Task 3, Familiar words, unfamiliar meanings, ''simulates the situation where we hear and recognize a target language word but find it hard to interpret it because the speaker is using it in a sense we were unaware of. ''Efficient listening involves the integration of whatever top and bottom information the listener is able to exploit – incoming auditory and visual information, as well as information drawn from internal memory and previous experience. Teaching listening: Time for a change in methodology ' ' ' '''The need for methodological change ' There is no doubt that listening provides a rich source of language input and that it can be a useful vehicle for preparing students for reading and writing in the new language, but it is much more than that. '''Learner responsibility: An important part of the teacher’s role is to help students develop strategies which enable them to become more independent as learners, and to take some of the responsibility for their own learning. Authenticity: The original definition of authenticity centered on text ''authenticity. Four other versions of authenticity have developed alongside this original definition. Breen (1985), Taylor (1994) and Lee (1995), among others, have suggested other aspects of the learning and teaching context which could also be authentic to a lesser or greater extent. ''Task ''authenticity implies that the tasks which students are given to do in connection with the listening text are as near as possible to the kinds of tasks they would do with those texts in real life. ''Learner ''authenticity concerns the notion that that the student should be motivated and interested to listen, that listening materials should engage “the learner’s prior knowledge, interest and curiosity” (Breen 1985: 63). ''Teacher ''authenticity refers to the fact that teachers can make inauthentic materials more authentic, by being culturally aware, “friendly, understanding and sensitive to learners’ needs” (Thorp 1993). ''Classroom ''authenticity refers to the fact that classrooms are part of real life too; they are social contexts in their own right: “We cannot just dismiss the classroom setting and all that takes place in it as being by definition artificial”(Taylor 1994: 6). '' '' '' Task-based learning ' A move away from traditional presentation-practice-production (P-P-P) approaches to teaching towards ''task-based ''learning, which typically involves students in using and extending their available language resources to do a communicative task with a real outcome and then reflecting on the language they needed to perform it: “a goal-oriented communicative activity with a specific outcome, where the emphasis is on exchanging meanings, not producing specific language forms” (Willis 1996: 36). '''Intercultural competence ' A realization that the learning of English can develop intercultural competence. Learners no longer expect to acquire solely American or British culture along with the English language, but to be exposed to a range of cultures, including their own, and in doing so, to gain insights into their own culture and an emerging global culture 'The traditional model for teaching listening ' Lesson plan for teaching the listening skill (traditional version): ''1. ''Selection of listening material '' 2. Pre-listening 3. Gist questions '' 4. First listening '' '' 5. Checking answers to the gist questions '' '' 6. Detailed questions '' '' 7. Second listening '' '' 8. Extension activity (optional) '' '' '' Problems with the traditional model ' -Not a lesson plan which allows students to take much ''responsibility for their own learning. The plan is dominated by teacher decisions. -The model presented above does not score very well either as far as authenticity ''is concerned. -The students are ''presented ''with a new piece of listening, they ''practice ''by listening to the text a number of times and doing tasks, and then the “extension” activity corresponds in many ways to the ''production ''stage of a P-P-P lesson. The emphasis is on getting correct answers to the comprehension questions. '''Some ways of improving the teaching of listening ' - Choose what they listen to - Make their own listening texts - Control the equipment (being in charge of replaying difficult parts of the listening text) - Give the instructions - Design their own listening tasks - Reflect on their problems in listening ' ' 'Listening activities displaying features which would improve the methodology for teaching listening ' Activity 1: Out of the room Activity 2: A tour around our town Activity 3: Serial story 'Arguments which support changes in methodology ' The three activities place more emphasis on practicing the speaking skill rather than the listening skill. The activities are also clearly communicative in that they use language for a non-linguistic purpose, focus on meaning rather than linguistic form, and involve students in genuine interaction with each other. 'Progression in acquiring listening competence ' It has been suggested that the methodology I am proposing, which makes great use of the students’ immediate learning context and gives students a large degree of control over opportunities for listening and the design of tasks, is more useful in the early stages of learning to listen to the L2 and that later on, students need to be exposed to different kinds of listening. 'Goals for teaching and learning listening ' Rather than seeing skills as things which are innate in proficient listeners, they should be thought of as ways in which listeners use language at a number of different levels, and that they refer to two main things: “the ability to extract … basic linguistic information, and the ability to interpret that in terms of some broader context.” A more satisfactory way for teachers to work is with a framework which describes listening ability as a whole, in all its aspects, in terms of competencies which students need to achieve in order to become proficient listeners. '' '' ''Goals for teaching and learning listening skills and strategies '' - understanding short utterances on a literal semantic level. Involves knowledge of phonology, stress, intonation, spoken vocabulary, and spoken syntax. - understanding longer or interactive discourse. Involves knowledge of discourse features such as markers, cohesion, schemata. - understanding the function/illocutionary force of an utterance. - interpreting utterances in terms of the context/situation. Involves knowing how different socio-linguistic groups use language, so involves knowledge of dialects, cultural references, degrees of formality, power relations and so on. - resolving comprehension problems by seeking help from the speaker. - remembering input, monitoring and evaluating how well one is understanding. 'A proposed listening syllabus ' - Becoming a good listener - Helping students to create their own listening texts and tasks - Micro skills - Adapting published materials so that they contain more of the “features” - Telephoning - Listening projects v '''Becoming a good listener Some of the activities you could use here are: - Asking students to think about the different meanings which the word “listen” could have - Telling a story but coughing at certain points so that students have to ask for clarification of the missing information or guess what it was ' ' - Asking students to think of people they know who are good listeners, and getting them to compile a list of the qualities shown by a good listener - Designing their own listening course - Planning how they can do listening practice outside class v Helping students to create their own listening texts and tasks ' Some suggested activities: - Instead of “pen-pals,” students have “tape-pals” in another place to whom they send an audiotape, video or CD-Rom. The pal replies. - Students develop a “listening corner” of recorded material with accompanying tasks, for self access use by their classmates. They create or choose the texts and tasks, not the teacher. v '''Micro skills ' Some suggested activities: - Wall dictation - Games where students have to find other students who have words showing the same stress pattern - Retelling stories; another group of students have to listen for certain words - Using recordings of soap operas to recognize the mood of particular characters from intonation, body language and facial expression - The activity “Out of the room” v 'Adapting published materials ' Some suggested activities: - Students are given pictures of scenes, people and objects taken from magazines. They explain how they fit in with a piece of listening from the course book - Students add to a piece of listening in the course book, or change it (e.g., monologue to dialogue) - Students design their own listening tasks for the listening texts in the course book v ' Telephoning ' Some suggested activities: - The teacher pretends to have a short conversation with somebody on his/her mobile phone. Students have to decide what the other person was saying - Students vote on a topic by ringing a phone “buddy” at home. The next day, the buddies report on the votes and produce a picture of how the whole class voted v 'Listening projects ' These tasks bring together a number of listening skills and strategies, and 'are good examples of the methodological changes. ' '''